Cutting, Punching, and Press Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic

Overview

Cutting, Punching, and Press Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic has a national median salary of $46,330 per year, with -10.5% projected job growth from 2025–2035. The Bureau of Labor Statistics lists a high school diploma or equivalent as the typical education needed to enter this occupation.

Description

Set up, operate, or tend machines to saw, cut, shear, slit, punch, crimp, notch, bend, or straighten metal or plastic material.

Work Values

• Support
• Relationships
• Achievement

Work Styles

Responsibilities

Tasks

• Measure completed workpieces to verify conformance to specifications, using micrometers, gauges, calipers, templates, or rulers.
• Examine completed workpieces for defects, such as chipped edges or marred surfaces and sort defective pieces according to types of flaws.
• Lubricate workpieces with oil.
• Read work orders or production schedules to determine specifications, such as materials to be used, locations of cutting lines, or dimensions and tolerances.
• Install, align, and lock specified punches, dies, cutting blades, or other fixtures in rams or beds of machines, using gauges, templates, feelers, shims, and hand tools.

Work Activities

• Handling and Moving Objects
• Making Decisions and Solving Problems
• Identifying Objects, Actions, and Events
• Controlling Machines and Processes
• Inspecting Equipment, Structures, or Materials
• Monitoring Processes, Materials, or Surroundings
• Getting Information
• Performing General Physical Activities
• Documenting/Recording Information
• Repairing and Maintaining Mechanical Equipment

Detailed Work Activities

• Using hands and arms in handling, installing, positioning, and moving materials, and manipulating things.
• Analyzing information and evaluating results to choose the best solution and solve problems.
• Identifying information by categorizing, estimating, recognizing differences or similarities, and detecting changes in circumstances or events.
• Using either control mechanisms or direct physical activity to operate machines or processes (not including computers or vehicles).
• Inspecting equipment, structures, or materials to identify the cause of errors or other problems or defects.
• Monitoring and reviewing information from materials, events, or the environment, to detect or assess problems.
• Observing, receiving, and otherwise obtaining information from all relevant sources.
• Performing general physical activities includes doing activities that require considerable use of your arms and legs and moving your whole body, such as climbing, lifting, balancing, walking, stooping, and handling materials.
• Entering, transcribing, recording, storing, or maintaining information in written or electronic/magnetic form.
• Servicing, repairing, adjusting, and testing machines, devices, moving parts, and equipment that operate primarily on the basis of mechanical (not electronic) principles.

T-A-S-K

Technology, Abilities, Skills & Knowledge

Education

Education Levels of Current Workers

The Bureau of Labor Statistics lists a high school diploma or equivalent as the typical education needed to enter this occupation. The chart below shows the highest level of education held by people already working in this field, ages 25 and older. It includes workers who earned more education than the job requires and workers who entered the field under earlier requirements, so the largest bar is not the entry requirement. For example, if someone finished an associate's degree and then started working in this field, they are counted under “Associate's degree” here, but the job itself typically asks for a high school diploma or equivalent.

Certificates

Certifications applicable to Cutting, Punching, and Press Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic:

Video Resources